FISH CROW 277 



had robbed three or four of the heron's nests. The crow's nest was 

 located 7 feet up in one of the largest of the baccharis bushes. It was 

 made of dead sticks and twigs and lined with strips of inner bark and 

 a few feathers. It measured 14 by 15 inches in outside and 7 inches 

 in inside diameter; it was hollowed to a depth of 6 inches. 



T. E. McMullen has sent me his data for 138 nests of the fish crow, 

 found in New Jersey and vicinity. Most of these, 80, were in holly 

 trees, 12 to 30 feet from the ground; 34 were in cedars, 53^ to 25 feet 

 up; 9 were located in oaks, at heights varying from 18 to 50 feet; 9 

 were placed in pines, 17 to 90 feet from the ground ; and there was one 

 each in a beech, a gum, a sassafras, and a wild cherry, and two in 

 maples, all at intermediate heights. 



Two nests have been reported at heights far above those already 

 mentioned. The Rev. H. E, Wheeler (1922) mentions a nest, found 

 on the bank of the Arkansas River, that was "well toward the top of a 

 huge sycamore 110 feet from the ground." This nest "now contained 

 no rootlets, but was lined with a mass of sycamore balls and horse hair !" 

 (This was after the eggs hatched. Before that the nest was "lined 

 with leaves and rootlets,") But Arthur T. Wayne (1910) reports the 

 loftiest nest of which I can find any record: "About twenty-five years 

 ago this species used to breed regularly in St. Paul's churchyard, in the 

 city of Charleston, where it placed its nest in the topmost branches of a 

 gigantic sycamore tree fully one hundred and fifty feet from the ground, 

 and it also bred in later years in private yards along East Battery." 



Major Bendire (1895) writes: "A nest taken by Dr. Ralph near 

 San Mateo, Florida, was composed of sticks with a little Spanish moss 

 attached to them, and was lined with pine needles, strips of cypress 

 bark, and old Spanish moss. It was placed in the top of a slender 

 pine tree, in low, flat pine woods, 81 feet from the ground. Some 

 nests are lined with dry cow and horse dung, cattle or horse hair, dry 

 leaves, eelgrass, and shreds of cedar bark, while pine needles seem to be 

 present to some extent in most of them. They are mostly placed in 

 evergreens, such as pines and cedars, and generally in the tops, either 

 in natural forks or on horizontal limbs, close to the trunk, usually 20 

 to 50 feet from the ground. They prefer to nest near water, but oc- 

 casionally a pair will be found making an exception to this rule, and 

 nests have been found fully 2 miles away from the nearest stream or 

 swamp," 



In the nesting site photographed by Mr. Grimes (pi. 46), two or 

 three pairs nest every spring in the tall slash pines; the highest fork 

 that will support the nest is usually selected. 



Eggs. — The fish crow lays ordinarily four or five eggs to a set, rarely 



667497—46—19 



